So I've been looking into changing my BP's and blood's caging from a 40g glass terrarium to a 52x20x14 plastic tub. My question is how would you recommend controlling the UTH. For the tanks I have currently, all glass terrariums and all with zoomed sticky UTH, I control my temps with a lamp dimmer. Kind of low tech and low cost. When I set all these tanks up, I was pretty tight on cash and I just never upgraded. So, manually and using probe thermometers and a temp gun, I adjust the temps as needed. I check my temps constantly and adjust as needed. They do vary about 4 degrees above or below where I like, so I just manually adjust them. Again, not the best method in the world, but its worked well for me. Also, the last thermostat I had malfunctioned and cracked one of my glass tanks. I guess I've been pretty turned off since then.
Now, when using something like a Ultratherm Heat Pad, would this method work? Obviously it would be easier to get a thermostat, but I just wanted to see if I could salvage my current setup and transfer it until I can upgrade to a more controlled and automated system.